CLIFTON — For the first time in four years, the city's tax base has grown.

City officials say that as 2018 gets under way, Clifton will see a net gain of $9.8 million in assessed value. The last such increase was in 2014.

In city with a total of $5 billion in property assessments, that represents less than 1 percent of the total. But it also shows that the city is heading in the right direction, officials said.

The city has endured a couple of slumps, such as when in Roche pulled up stakes in 2013. Now things are improving and the change is welcome, said Mayor James Anzaldi.

On the horizon is the redevelopment of the Roche campus, which is expected to include the Seton Hall-Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine along with campus housing. A hotel and conference center are also proposed on the Clifton portion of the site.

"We saw the economy getting better and you do see more people coming in for projects throughout the city, and you see a lot of added assessments because of improvements people are doing to their homes," said Anzaldi.

In all, the city saw a gross of $21.6 million in new ratables, he said.

That was offset by a $6.3 million reduction through cases in tax court and $2 million in county tax appeals, plus other losses such as demolitions. Seven properties switched to tax-exempt status for a drop of $1 million. The overall loss was around $11.8 million, records show.

Rinaldi added that much of the reason for the earlier contraction was "an inferior real estate market" that persisted for years. However, more recently the market has improved, which has included an overall decrease in tax appeals not only in Clifton, but throughout New Jersey, he said.

As far as tax court cases, many matters carried over from when the market was weak, but have been resolved, the assessor noted.